I created a custom campaign for Armada, and I am trying to gauge interest for a Vassal play through so I can gather feedback. Here is the rules:

I'll need an even amount of players, ideally 6 or 8. This will be the first official play through, so it's not going to be balanced. I'll be managing the campaign and observing how it progresses. Any skill level is allowed because I hopefully have implemented some buffers to allow newer players to contend with more experienced ones, but that's another thing not balanced yet.

You will need Vassal to do this, and likely access to google spread sheets. You can find the generic sheet in the rules.

Let me know who is interested. If we get a lot of players, we can do several groups, but I will only manage 1 game.

I loved the sounds of it since the beginning of it, and I love that kind of strategy play, so count me in!

I'd love to play! I don't know if I shall have the time, but so long as the scheduling is relaxed, I'd be delighted to be involved.

@rasproteus and I have been looking at a CC campaign. Don't know if he might prefer this... way more complex and involved than CC, but way more games too. Don't know if he would be interested or we will keep trying to put together a CC.

10 hours ago, BrobaFett said:

@rasproteus and I have been looking at a CC campaign. Don't know if he might prefer this... way more complex and involved than CC, but way more games too. Don't know if he would be interested or we will keep trying to put together a CC.

I'm in.

Cool, 4 people so far. While we wait, you guys can start messing with 200 point starter fleets and the generic commanders and let me know how those fleets feel.

@Visovics @GhostofNobodyInParticular @BrobaFett @rasproteus

Anytime you guys would like to start? I know Vassal is pretty popular right now, but I'd like to get it organized and ready to play when you guys are ready.

8 minutes ago, Undeadguy said:

@Visovics @GhostofNobodyInParticular @BrobaFett @rasproteus

Anytime you guys would like to start? I know Vassal is pretty popular right now, but I'd like to get it organized and ready to play when you guys are ready.

This month is busy but the task force sized games shouldn't take long, and fitting them in should be no problem.

I'm good whenever.

Broba and I were looking at rebel fleet builds, but I'm open to negotiation I suppose.

I looked into some 200 point imp fleets

I’m ready whenever the rest is

I'm busy now, but I ought to be free sometime near the end of the month. Just please be aware that with the VWC starting, I might not have too much time.

23 minutes ago, GhostofNobodyInParticular said:

I'm busy now, but I ought to be free sometime near the end of the month. Just please be aware that with the VWC starting, I might not have too much time.

I am in the VWC as well. I expect a hurry-up-and-wait format for those games.

Sadly, I also expect that the duration of my involvement will be unfortunately short.

We can wait a bit for the first games of the VWC to finish before we start.

Is there any lead-up book keeping stuff we could do on this, before the games start in earnest?

8 hours ago, BrobaFett said:

Is there any lead-up book keeping stuff we could do on this, before the games start in earnest?

Create fleets following the start of game rules, and figure out shipyard placement. But we still need to determine who is playing which faction.

Rasp and I Rebels, GNIPS and visovics Imperials?

For reference:

• For each contested sector, a pair of opposing players alternate claiming planets in their contested sector.
  • Once all planets are claimed, each player secretly designates one to be a shipyard.
  • At the start of the first round, all planets are declared unclaimed and players do not reveal where their shipyard is.
• Select a planet in your faction sector as a shipyard. Do not reveal its location.
• Each player creates 2 200 point fleets with a generic commander.
  • Both fleets start at the shipyard in the contested sector.
• Each player should have 2 fleets and 2 shipyards.
• Start the first round with the Move Phase.

We are lacking a map, I believe? How is this usually done in CC? Do the five of us need to get together to pick planets?

Also, I must have misunderstood something. When a fleet moves, what does it announce? I thought it was destination, but if you start at the shipyard that would narrow down the search radius immensely.

And what if both sides pick the same planet in a sector? There must be a GM to manage such conflicts, no? I assume now that will be Undeadguy. But in a normal campaign, it means there's gonna be somebody who is only bookkeeping.

6 hours ago, rasproteus said:

For reference:

• For each contested sector, a pair of opposing players alternate claiming planets in their contested sector.
  • Once all planets are claimed, each player secretly designates one to be a shipyard.
  • At the start of the first round, all planets are declared unclaimed and players do not reveal where their shipyard is.
• Select a planet in your faction sector as a shipyard. Do not reveal its location.
• Each player creates 2 200 point fleets with a generic commander.
  • Both fleets start at the shipyard in the contested sector.
• Each player should have 2 fleets and 2 shipyards.
• Start the first round with the Move Phase.

We are lacking a map, I believe? How is this usually done in CC? Do the five of us need to get together to pick planets?

We do not have a map, so we will use a grid system. Sector 1, planet 5 = 1-5. Sector 2, planet 13 = 2-13.

6 sectors total. 2 Imperial and 2 Rebel. Each player will have one of these home sectors, and you may place your shipyard on any planet. You will let me know where it is, and you may share it with your ally.

There will be 2 contested sectors, over which 1 Imperial and 1 Rebel will be fighting in. We could do the claiming process, or I can assign a random planet to each of you. The location doesn't really matter since I have not incorporated any planet bonuses yet.

I'll be managing the game, so I won't be playing with you guys.

1 hour ago, GhostofNobodyInParticular said:

Also, I must have misunderstood something. When a fleet moves, what does it announce? I thought it was destination, but if you start at the shipyard that would narrow down the search radius immensely.

And what if both sides pick the same planet in a sector? There must be a GM to manage such conflicts, no? I assume now that will be Undeadguy. But in a normal campaign, it means there's gonna be somebody who is only bookkeeping.

You will announce at the destination. For this campaign, you 4 will feed me fleet information, and I will assign pairings and announce fleet movements.

What do you mean if both sides pick the same planet?

1 hour ago, Undeadguy said:

You will announce at the destination. For this campaign, you 4 will feed me fleet information, and I will assign pairings and announce fleet movements.

But doesn't that mean (assuming you can only move to adjacent planets) that the location of the shipyard will be nearly pinpointed?

1 hour ago, Undeadguy said:

What do you mean if both sides pick the same planet?

I was under the impression that the secondary yard was in the same system as the opponent's, and that the fleets also started in the same system. I must have misread something.

Also: does each player have 2 shipyards? I just realized that when you say 2 controlled sectors per team, each player has a sector. So not 2 shipyards a side, but 4. Right?

20 minutes ago, GhostofNobodyInParticular said:

But doesn't that mean (assuming you can only move to adjacent planets) that the location of the shipyard will be nearly pinpointed?

You can move to any planet in a sector, but must move to an exit to move to another sector.

21 minutes ago, GhostofNobodyInParticular said:

I was under the impression that the secondary yard was in the same system as the opponent's, and that the fleets also started in the same system. I must have misread something.

You will have 1 shipyard in your home sector, which is the faction specific one. You will also have 1 shipyard in the contested sector. 1 player from the opposing team will also have a shipyard in the contested sector. This leads to 2 shipyards, and 12 unclaimed planets in the contested sector. Both of your fleets will start in the contested sector on your shipyard.

For this campaign, I think it will be easier if I randomly assign shipyards in the contested sector, because the location doesn't really impact the game.

1 hour ago, Undeadguy said:

For this campaign, I think it will be easier if I randomly assign shipyards in the contested sector, because the location doesn't really impact the game.

Agreed.

Also, would it be possible to like, do a very VERY simple excel grid with a sector layout where we can just highlight fleet positions and zones of control and whatever interesting notes? Like a google doc spreadsheet for common info. Being able to get our information via something like that would save a lot of coming to you with questions

10 minutes ago, BrobaFett said:

Agreed.

Also, would it be possible to like, do a very VERY simple excel grid with a sector layout where we can just highlight fleet positions and zones of control and whatever interesting notes? Like a google doc spreadsheet for common info. Being able to get our information via something like that would save a lot of coming to you with questions

Good point. I'll work on that this weekend.

So I’m assuming that everyone is fine with the teams, so would it be fine for me to start a chat now where me and Gnips can start discussing initial fleets and where we’ll use to discuss strategy once the campaign starts?